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Monday, February 18, 2013

Happy Presidents' Day. Hope everyone is having a great 3 day weekend. I'm going to share my nails of the day that I did yesterday. I got inspired by some tattoos.

I used three different image plates for this: BM-323, Mash-29, and W119.

The silver base is Sinful Colors Tantalize. It is one of their new colors. It is a silver frosty color. The formula was so runny though. It was messy! Other than that, coverage is ok. This is two coats. Then I stamped roses from BM-323 using Sinful Colors Black on Black. Then on my accent nails, I painted them black. I stamped the leaves and branches from W-119 on using Sally Hansen Lickety-Split Lime. They made perfect rose stems. Then I used a dotting tool with red paint and blobbed on some roses and added some details. Then lastly I stamped a skull from Mash-29 using Sally Hansen Silver Sweep.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Since Valentine's Day is over, I decided to do another "snake" mani. It is the year of the snake which is my Chinese zodiac year. The base is Gap Gold Rush, a green/gold duochrome. Then I stamped a scales pattern over it with Sinful Colors Black on Black. Then over the scales I stamped snake "stripes" I guess? I don't know what to call them.

I used a Winstonia image plate.

The scales image I used is on the left, then the stripes from the top. I loooove these plates!

Thursday, February 14, 2013

So there are a new set of image plates available now. They are made by Winstonia. It is a set of 20 image plates for $15.99. They are very well made, stamp lovely, and have a lot of great holiday images. I used the Valentine plate to make today's mani. The pink is Sinful Colors Cotton Candy. The darker pink I stamped with is Sinful Colors Truth or Dare. Then I used Sinful Colors Snow Me White andKleancolors Metallic Black to stamp the other images.

There are some bare spots in the stamping but I think that was user error. When I tested them on paper, the image stamped perfectly.

Here is the plate below on the left. They are the same size of other plates like Bundle Monster or MASH. They have backing so you don't cut yourself on sharp edges.

I used all the images on W102 except the heart with wings. I noticed after I stamped the tree and put dots that the tree has little birdies sitting at the top. I've tested about half the plates and they all stamp great. There are a lot of new and unique images that I haven't seen on other plates.

I bought the set on my own and there was a 10% off code that I used. I don't know if it is still valid but if you are interested in the plates, go here and enter code PLATE10 for 10% off. I ordered straight from their website and shipping was fast. I paid for priority shipping and got it within a few days. I actually got them before my payment cleared through Paypal. lol They are also available on Amazon but I don't think the promo code works there.

Thursday, February 7, 2013

I received some awesome nail mail from my facebook friend Bee from Bee Polished. I got the whole collection of Zoya PixieDust polishes. It is their new line of textured polishes. You have probably already seen swatches on other blogs. Even Bee has one up today on Zoya London, the grey one from this collection.

I have been on a nail art kick lately so I took three colors from this collection and did a leopard print.

Zoya Dahlia, Chyna, and Godiva

Since it is February, I had to do a "Valentine" inspired leopard print. It is hard to tell but the spots are hearts.

So I started out with two coats of Godiva, the beige shade. Then made hearts with Chyna using a dotting tool. Lastly I outlined the hearts with Dahlia.

For my accent, I just used 2 coats of Chyna. Then I outlined it with Dahlia and made it look like a heart.

These are my first textured polishes and I love them. It wasn't that hard to do the nail art with them. You probably won't be making any fine lines or details with these but for anything else, they'll be great.Or you can just wear them on their own. That works too :)

Monday, February 4, 2013

I have a pastel mani to show you guys today. I did this on Saturday and had plans to remove it for Sunday and do a Super Bowl mani, but it was just too pretty. I'm still wearing it now and it has not chipped yet. I know I'll be removing it once it does.

I love how the roses look against the blue. Oh I'm going to be so sad when I take this off.

This is one of my favorite manis I think I have done lately. The roses are inspired by Robin Moses. The blue is Essie Mint Candy Apple (see I do own something other than Sinful Colors if you were wondering. lol) I used paint for the roses and leaves. I accented the stems with Sally Hansen Gilded Lily. The purple is Sally Hansen Lacey Lilac and it is topped with Zoya Gilty, their 18k gold leaf top coat. I'm not really liking the gold leaf. I had to dab it to get good coverage. But the formula is thick so I'd have big globs of clear base also. Ugh gross. If I just stroked the brush on my nail like usual, I'd only get one or two tiny bits. But I guess the final look is worth the trouble!

Sunday, February 3, 2013

My first Valentine's Day mani. Simple. I started with China Glaze Ahoy. I almost forgot I had this. I found it in the depths of my storage. This is 2 coats. It is like raspberry syrup on my nails and it has this incredible shimmer from golden glass flecks. The only thing I didn't like is that it never really dried. It was still smudging the next day. Boo!

Then I stamped hearts on it. The hearts came from Bundle Monster BM-317.

Can you see how much better my photos look? I didn't get a new camera. I got a new light! Missy from Gnarly Gnails recently found an Ottlite at the craft section of Walmart for $15! An Ottlite folks! They are usually MUCH more money than that. Plus this one is attached to a storage caddy. You can see her blog post about it here. I went to my Walmart and was able to find it but it was $19 but still...a huge savings for an OTTLITE! Look at these pics. I don't even have a light box and the colors are pretty true to life. I didn't even do any editing except for cropping and watermarking it. I'm also messing around with a new editing program so my watermarks are probably going to change until I figure out how I want to do it.

Friday, February 1, 2013

I went on a little retail therapy session today and bought two new polishes from Forever 21. Like always there are no names but one is labeled Baby Blue/Hot Pink and the other is Grey/Hot Pink. They are both milky glitters.

The first one to show you is the baby blue one. This is a very sheer polish. I have three coats and the picture turned out more blue than it really is. It is actually more pale pale blue. More like white with a blue tint. The glitters are fuchsia and holo silver and tiny blue specs. It kind of reminds me of Nerd Lacquer All of Time and Space but without all the shimmer. The formula is ok. Not too thick and not runny. I'll probably wear something underneath next time.

The next one is the grey polish. I have said this before so hopefully you know by now that I love greys! I was excited to find this one. It is very sheer also but this is three coats so it builds up nicely. The formula is the same, not too thick or thin. I didn't need to do much clean up. The glitters are blue and fuchsia with purple specs.

I also found some nail art pens there. I bought a white, black, red, and gold one. I didn't take any pics of them but they are a "three in one" type. There is a pen tip and a brush on one end. The other end holds rhinestones that correlate with the color of polish. I've used the black already and it works pretty well for nail art.